The first rule of Kaleidoscope Desert is: If you don’t want an ostrich to come up and say hello to you, don’t come to Kaleidoscope Desert.
But if you’d like to walk among high-desert art installations while a pair of harlequin Great Danes trot along beside you, climb a tower covered in psychedelic art to look down on a tiny herd of miniature goats, take a sound bath while a sleek Italian greyhound chills out on the mat next to you, soak in a natural spring pool while a zebra strolls by, have a conversation with a verbose parrot or sleep in a vintage trailer where Stevie Nicks once slept — you should definitely go.
The Stevie Nicks part is dubious. The rest is very real, and happening in Morongo Valley, just outside Joshua Tree.
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“The way we think about it, like when we talk to [visitors] about the animals, is treat them as guests or as residents who live here,” co-owner Vanessa Wruble told me on my visit. “If they want to talk to you, they’ll talk to you. We’re not going to inject ourselves into their world.”
“But obviously,” Wruble added as we both rubbed the hindquarters of a donkey who had wandered into our conversation as though she had something she wanted to add, “this donkey wants nothing more than to be pet.”
The “Gold Dust” is a vintage 1970s trailer where Stevie Nicks may or may not have stayed, at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Amazing and Big Bertha, two rescued great danes, at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Kaleidoscope Desert defies simple definition, which is part of its charm. It’s a 5-acre ranch owned by Wruble and her partner Hunter Vurbeff, which houses any manner of animal in need of a safe and loving home. In addition to the donkeys, ostrich, mini goats, dogs and parrots, there are also miniature horses, emus, pigs, chickens, roosters, guinea hens, ducks, peacocks, a turkey and a tortoise. (There’s no partridge in a pear tree, but give it time.) It’s also an immersive art experience and a wellness destination that offers Airbnb-style cottage rentals.
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Almost all of the animals have been adopted from shelters, whether from the desert’s notoriously overflowing facilities or through cross-country networks that get animals out of high-risk situations. Rubs the zebra, for example, came from an exotic game hunting park in Texas, and had been sent to an animal auction. The mini horses (there are six, with names like Carol Burnett, Betty White and Stay Golden Pony Boy) were rescued from a similarly grim fate in Oklahoma. The couple takes animals on a case-by-case basis, dictated by what they can afford and responsibly care for.
The tower guest room at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif., on May 6, 2026.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
An emu crosses the road at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
“We never meant to do a sanctuary,” Wruble explained. “It was just totally organic.” The couple was living in New York City and spending winters in Los Angeles when the pandemic hit, and they headed out to the desert for open space and to figure out their next move. “It just became very clear that we weren’t going back,” she added.
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Their original intention was just to buy a house, and rent its guest house for additional income.
“The guest house next to my house had been named Kaleidoscope House because this artist actually from the Bay Area had painted completely fractal rainbows everywhere,” Wruble said. “It has that history of being a place for art and creativity even before we got here. We ended up keeping a lot of that stuff and adopting the name Kaleidoscope because we were like, ‘Whatever we make here is not going to be uniform.’ It’s going to be because of the landscape, because of what’s here.”
The couple had always been passionate about dog rescue, but with 5 acres of land, all of a sudden, they could help more and larger animals.
“It was just a slippery slope,” she said. “We would see one animal that needed a home” and add to the menagerie.
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“The shelters around here are so full that when people bring in dogs, they turn them away and they’re like, ‘Just put it back where you found it because we don’t have anything,’” Wruble said.
At Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif., you might wake up to a rescued animal outside your bedroom window.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Ryu the ostrich is known to strut past the windows of the guest houses at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
She added, “We realized that we could support rescuing animals by having people come here and donate to either stay or come for the day.”
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Visitors can take a tour of the property and meet the animals, book a sound bath experience in the meditation center or purchase a day pass, which includes use of the natural spring pool, a hot tub and a couple of twin bathtubs that sit within an art installation. There are old glass bottles and a vintage typewriter on a weather-beaten antique desk, as well as an old piano with sheet music. It gives the effect of a century-old parlor that just happens to have a 360-degree view of the San Bernardino Mountains (a view that sometimes has an emu strolling through it).
“We’re also both artists, so that was another piece of this,” Wruble explained. “Making this an immersive installation of art and wonder and magic.”
People can also rent one of the accommodations on the property, which start at about $150 a night. They range from a guest house outfitted with vintage records and a bed that has an eight-track player built into the headboard to that mural-covered tower, which has a patio and outdoor kitchen where overnight guests can sit and watch the animals stroll by.
In addition to being an animal sanctuary, Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif., is an ever-evolving art space.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Guests can book a day pass to use the natural spring pool at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Most of the animals are used to being around people, and are only casually interested in saying hello. On my visit, Ryu the ostrich was very curious and friendly, Charlie Brown the turkey made more than one guest appearance, and Amazing and Big Bertha, the Great Danes, were at our heels for the whole tour. The mini horses and zebra kept largely to themselves. To my dismay, the mini goats — with names like Goatchella, Skunk, Punk and Brown Sugar — rebuffed my attempts at affection. But I can’t blame them, it was lunchtime.
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Why “it feels so different here is because we don’t have pens,” Wruble said. “So they’re not caged animals. They have room to get away. They don’t feel threatened.”
A vintage 1970s trailer, totally covered in mirrors and murals of the desert, is where Stevie Nicks comes in. “We called it the Gold Dust because we heard a rumor that Stevie Nicks once stayed in it, even though I’m pretty sure we made up that rumor,” Wruble said with a laugh. The songstress would often come to the desert while touring — it’s a common destination for high-profile musicians, like Paul McCartney.
As for the rumor that Nicks would sometimes stay in that trailer, “I alert everyone that we have no idea of its veracity,” she added.
Inside the Gamelatron Sound Experience, a meditation space with an innovative sound bath experience created by Burning Man artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
Half Ass, one of the friendly donkeys at Kaleidoscope Ranch in Morongo Valley, Calif.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
In addition to caring for the animals and hosting guests, Wruble and Vurbeff are continuously adding to the art of the place, sometimes sourcing muralists to add more visual interest to the few corners of the ranch that aren’t already covered in art, and sometimes using found objects to create more installations in the open space.
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“People come here and they’re like, ‘This is my dream life,’” Wruble said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s my dream life too, but it has its challenges.’ And the challenges are incredibly expensive.” Foremost among them is the cost of feeding and caring for the animals. Wruble estimates the ranch spends up to $5,000 monthly on food alone.
Charlie Brown the turkey at Kaleidoscope Desert in Morongo Valley, Calif. on May 6, 2026.
Ed Rudolph/For SFGATE
They’ve added more accommodations as they can, and Wruble has created a book, “Dogs of Kaleidoscope Desert,” as a fundraising effort — and a way for people to “take home” the animals they may wish they could adopt. It happens often enough that they sell a tote joking about how the animals sadly didn’t fit inside to take home. (Though Wruble and Vurbeff do sometimes foster, they don’t adopt out any of their animals.)
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“There were times when we weren’t sure how much longer we could do this,” she said. “The math wasn’t adding up … But we’re finally at a point now where we have enough people wanting to come see and support what we do.”